Alberta fire rages on and claims further ground as weather shifts

Unseasonably hot temperatures have transformed the boreal forest in much of Alberta into a tinderbox. Picture: AP

A massive, raging wild fire moved south and forced three more communities south of Canada's main oil sands city to evacuate.

Officials with the Rural Municipality of Wood Buffalo had been notified of changing weather patterns and were not taking chances, ordering the evacuation of Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates and Fort McMurray First Nation. The fire has already forced the evacuation of more 80,000 people and torched 1,600 homes and other buildings in Fort McMurray. The province of Alberta declared a state of emergency.

In the early hours of yesterday morning, weary evacuees from Fort McMurray were sitting on buses headed for Edmonton after being forced out of their temporary shelter in nearby Anzac.